Very jealous. I got a late start, and only have three tomatoes yet turning to red, even though one of the plants was listed as 49 days to maturity, and it's certainly been more than 60. On the other hand, the plants are very robust, chiles are doing great this year after a couple of really lean yield years.

What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

My tomatoes, tomatillos, and chiles are suddenly booming. I'm still not pleased with the lack of size of vigor of the Brandywines, but they are producing. The tomatillos and the Green Zebra tomato, though, have gone nuts. I'm very happy, and also happy with the decision to plant Tithonia (Mexican sunflowers), a bee magnet. I think every single tomatillo flower was pollinated - there must be 75 more fruits on the plants, and I just picked enough on Friday to make a batch of Rick Bayless's salsa. These were just picked today.

sundevilpeg wrote: I'm very happy, and also happy with the decision to plant Tithonia (Mexican sunflowers), a bee magnet.

What a coincidence that you mention Mexican sunflower. I'd never heard of this plant until a few days ago, when I saw one in a neighbor's garden and had to ask what it was. I was surprised to learn that this beautiful, six-foot-tall, abundantly flowering plant was an annual she'd grown from Burpee seeds! She wrote the name down for me so I could get some seeds to plant next summer. In addition to being a bee magnet, it appears to be a butterfly magnet.